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"A marvelous read, full of interesting lore and powerful ideas. . . . Levi has pushed the historical study of resources mobilization to a new height."Aaron Wildavsky, University of California, Berkeley

"A magnificent book, one of the best blends of rational choice theory and historical analysis I've seen. . . . [Levi's] resolute focus throughout on rulers' efforts to balance extraction of revenues against the compliance of their polities organizes this vast collection of material into a tight, compelling account."Russell Hardin, University of Chicago

"Margaret Levi convincingly integrates institutional analysis and rational choice theory to provide powerful accounts of what state rulers do. This is an important book, certain to generate broad interest and debate."Theda Skocpol, Harvard University

"I think the book will have a major impact. It positions itself in the macro-level literature and looks at states and the evolution of political forms. But it does so while championing the use of micro-level tools of reasoning and models derived from rational choice."Robert H. Bates, Duke University

Most helpful customer reviews

A virtuous mix of rational choice, institutionalism and neo-Marxism theories. Levi explains the interaction among State, actors and citizens that has preferences and strategic capacity to maximize objectives. With the historical examples worked by Levi, I notice the possibility to analyze the relationships among the Brazilian State, business associations and unions face the politics of neoliberal reforms recently applied by the brazilian government. Roberto Corrêa

Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)

A virtuous mix of rational choice, institutionalism and neo-Marxism theories. Levi explains the interaction among State, actors and citizens that has preferences and strategic capacity to maximize objectives. With the historical examples worked by Levi, I notice the possibility to analyze the relationships among the Brazilian State, business associations and unions face the politics of neoliberal reforms recently applied by the brazilian government. Roberto Corrêa

4 of 46 people found the following review helpful

Of Rule and ReviewSept. 16 2005

By
E. Sickles
- Published on Amazon.com

Format: Paperback

"As specialization and division of labor increase, there is greater demand on the state to provide collective goods where once there were solely private goods or no goods at all."

From the second sentence of this book, it charts its course in oblivious contradiction of reality. In reality, of course, economic activity individuates and privatizes as society develops. The few exceptions, e.g., the Soviet Union, are typically short-lived and embarrassing to their promoters.

Ms. Levi is obviously a clever person, but sadly, as with many clever people in academia, her intelligence in this book is deployed mainly to play games of self-referential abstraction.

This book's obscurity and practical uselessness mean that it is unlikely to be of any consequence. There probably is a good book to be written on a general theory of comparative taxation, but this ain't it.